ARSENICAL POISONING FROM SMELTER SMOKE. 
171 
only barely visible, but at other times was so thick as completely 
to bide the mucous membrane. Thi's coating was evidently the 
dust which the animal stirred up as it was biting the grass, and 
which was carried into the nostril with the inspired air and there 
deposited. The animals were able partly to expel this dust by 
snorting, and the increased secretions of the mucous membrane, 
excited by the dust, washed some of it away; but as eating the 
grass was resumed immediately, a new deposit at once took the 
place of the former. It is plain that the tepid, aqueous and 
alkaline liquid distilled from the mucous membrane must have 
dissolved a part of the soluble constituents of the dust, and that 
these constituents would be most concentrated in this liquid when 
it reached the lower limit of this membrane. If the dust con¬ 
tained arsenic in soluble form, and we know from the analvses 
of Swain and Harkins and of Haywood that it did contain such 
arsenic, then we may conclude that the mucous membrane and 
skin in the floor of the nostril, at the orifice, was constantly 
moistened with a liquid which held arsenic in solution. And, 
further, that an arsenical dust was constantly being deposited, 
forming with the liquid just mentioned an arsenical paste which 
was applied during the whole time that the animal was grazing. 
Evidently we have here favorable conditions for the forma¬ 
tion of an ulcer; and whether a prick or abrasion was necessary 
to start the process, or whether the penetration of this irritating 
liquid into a gland or follicle, or the mere maceration of the 
epidermis was sufficient, matters not from the present point of 
view. What was observed was, that after the smoke had been 
over the pastures for a few days, depositing a fresh supply of 
arsenic, and while this was in the most soluble form, the ulcers 
began to develop. 
REFERENCES. 
1. Harkins, W. D., and Swain, R. E.: The Chronic Arsenical Poisoning of 
Herbivorous Animals. Jour, of the Am’n Chem. Society, XXX, No. 6, June, 1908, p. 942. 
2. Loc. cit. 
3. Swain, R. E., and Harkins, W. D.: Arsenic in Vegetation Exposed to Smelter 
Smoke. Jour, of the Am’n Chem. Society, XXX, No. 6, June, 1908, p. 923. 
(Concluded in June Issue.) 
